My background is in hardware design. I found hardware work to be a welcome change from thousands of hours of programming and that led to the designs you mentioned. – David Crane
Another little known fact about Amazing Tennis – the computer opponents are modeled after real people. In an odd turn of events, I joined a division 3 college tennis team at age 38. – David Crane
Looking back, video game design seems a natural fit, although there was no such thing when I was growing up. I built a Tic-Tac-Toe playing machine in my teens which went up in smoke on the night it was scheduled to go to a science fair. – David Crane
Doing things like playing music, something thats so natural and basic to human function, running around in nature, eating delicious food. These things are intrinsic in basic, primordial to human beings, so thats sort of a way to return to a blank canvas, allowing my true personality to return. – Ezra Miller